Door opening or closing apparatus for elevators



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F. B. HERDMAN.

DQOROPENING OB; CLOSING APPARATUS FOR ELEVATORS.

Patented Nov. 3. 1896.

m: NORRIS PULRS co. PHOTO-LITND.. WASHINGTON P (No Model.){sheets-Shae}; 2, F. E. HERDMAN. DOOR OPENING 0R CLOSING APPARATUS FORELEVATORS.

No. 570,476. Patented Nov. 3, 1896.

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P. E. HERDMAN.

GLOSING APPARATUS FOR ELEVATORS.

DOOR OPENING OR No. 570,476.

Patented Nov. 3,1896.

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(No Model.) '4 Sheets-Sheet 4. F. E.'HERD1VIAN.

DOOR OPENING 0R CLOSING APPARATUS FOR ELEVATORS. No 570,476. PatentedNov. 3, 1896.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

FRANK E. HERDMAN, OF \VINNETKA, ILLINOIS.

DOOR OPENING OR CLO SING APPARATUS FOR ELEVATORS.

SPECIFICATION forming .part of Letters Patent No. 570,476, datedNovember 3, 1896.

Application filed September 27, 1895- Serial No. 563,887. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, FRANK E. IIERDMAN, a citizen of the United States,and a resident of VVinnetka, in the county of Cook and State ofIllinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in DoorOpening and Closing Apparatus for Elevators, of which the following is afull, clear, and exact description, reference being had to theaccompanying drawings, forming. a part of this specification.

This invention relates to improvements in door opening and closingapparatus for elevators, and has for its prime object the provision ofdevices wherebythe doors of an elevator-shaft will be automaticallyopened and closed by the stopping of the elevator-car at any floor ofthe building.

Another object is to have the door opening and closing mechanismoperated, in whole or in part, by electricity, in such manner that theentire apparatus may be electrically operated and controlled,ormechanically operated but electrically controlled. 1

A further object is to have in an. apparatus.

of this character the capability of complete automatic operation in bothopening and closing the doors or manually controlled, whereby theopeningof the doors need not take place until the elevator-car arrivesat a landing, and the. closing of the doors may take place before thecar leaves a landing or floor.

These and such other objects as may hereinafter appear are attained bythe devices illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in whicl1----Figure 1 is a diagrammatic elevation of two floors of a building,showingdevioes applied thereto embodying my invention electricallyoperated and controlled; Fig. 2,a similar view to Fig. 1, but showingthe devices mechanically operated but electrically controlled. Fig. 3 isa detail section of the car, showing the circuit making and breakingdevices applied thereto; Fig. 4, a detail view of the contact-plates,and Fig. 5 a detail view of the electrically-operated door-openingmechanism. Figs. 6, '7, and 8 are detail. vicwsshowing the constructionand arrangement of parts of the door opening and closing mechanism,

in which the devices are mechanically openated and electricallycontrolled.

Similar letters of reference indicate the same parts in the severalfigures of the drawings.

I11 the preferred form of my invention the control. devices areautomatically operated by the control-lever of the elevator-car, whichoperates the valve controlling the liftingcable of the car in suchmanner that, when. the leveris at a central or stopped position thedooropening mechanism will be brought into play, while, if the lever isin a position for either an up or down travel of the car, the dooropening and closing mechanisms will remain inoperative, or, rather, whenmoved from stopped to up or down position the door-operating mechanismat the floor at which the car has stopped will be permitted to close thedoor and then remain inoperative until it is desired to again openit. Itis within the contemplation of my invention, however, to have thecontrol devices of such character that the door may be either opened andclosed or closed only, without movement of the control-lever, the motorin all cases, however, being controlled electric \Vith these ends inview I have illustrated in the drawings different embodiments of myinvention, which I will now proceed to describe, it being understoodthat'but two floors of a building are illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2, andthe elevator-car is supposed to have stopped at the upper or secondfloor, at which the door is shown open, while the lower door is closed.

Referring by letter to the accompanying drawings, letAindicate thefloors of a building and B doors of the elevator-shaft, in which works,in any usual or preferred manner, an elevator-car, the floor 0 of whichis shown in the drawings. The door opening and closing mechanism at eachfloor comprises a wheel. 1), suitably journaled at the side of theelevator-shaft and provided. with a segmental rack or teeth l hwithwhichengages a springactuated lock-bolt l which. is normally held out ofengagement with the teeth. by its spring. This lock-bolt is mounted upona lever G, loosely journaled upon the axle or pivot of the wheel I), andhaving mounted upon one end thereof an electromagnet ll, the armature Iof which is secured to a projection on the lock-bolt F, so that when thesaid magnet is energized to attract its armature the lockbolt is throwninto engagement with the teeth or projections E on the wheel D, andthereby locks the lever G to the wheel, so as to cause said lever. toturn with the wheel. This lever is connected by a link J with the door13, so that when the lever is turned upon its pivot in one direction thedoor will be opened, and when turned in the opposite direction the doorwill be closed, the attachment of the link to the door and the pivot ofthe lever being so arranged that the pivotal connection between thelever and the link when the door is closed will be brought to adead-center, and thereby serve as a lock for the door to prevent theopening of the same except by rocking the lever.

The series of wheels D are actuated by an operatingcable K, which istrained around and preferably secured to each of the wheels D, and isalso trained over a pulley at the top of the shaft and a drum 1 at thebottom of the shaft, which latter is driven by any suitable motor, ahydraulic motor being shown in the drawings, the valve of which isactuated and controlled by the electromagnet N, so that when said magnetis energized the valve of the motor will be opened and theoperatingcable driven to cause the opening of a door. Of course, at allof the landings, except that at which the car has come to rest, theelectromagnets II are not energized, and hence the wheels D at suchlandings are free to turn without causing the opening of the door.

I do not desire to limit myself, however, to a hydraulic motor, or to amotor of any particular kind or construction, it simply being necessaryto my construction to have some form of motor whose operation can becontrolled by the electromagnet N and which will actuate theoperating-cable. For the carrying out of my invention in its preferredform I employ at each landing three contact blocks 0 P Q, and upon theelevator -ca-r two contact-plates R and S, as will be more clearly seenin Fig. 1-, the contact-plate R being broad enough to close the circuitbetween the blocks P and Q,while the contact-plate S closes the circuitthrough the contact-block O.

The contact-blocks O and P are in the main circuit containing the magnetN, while the contact-block Q is in a branch circuit containing themagnet II of the door opening and closing mechanism. In the car is ametallic plate T, adapted and arranged to be engaged by theoperating-lever U of the car whenever the latter is in a centralposition, the lever being connected with the contact-plate R by the wireV and the contact-plate T being connected by the wire \Y with thecontact-plate S. This lever U is connected with the elevatorcontrolcables, and for this purpose it maybe provided with. pulleys on whichsaid cables can be trained. In the line between the plates T and S, Iprefer to insert a push-button X, through which the circuit is normallyclosed, so that when desired the circuit may be broken at this point topermit the closing of a door before the clevator-carleaves alanding. Oneline of the main circuit, which comes in over wire a, is connectedserially through the contact-blocks O, the connection at the firstlanding, however, having an ordinary switch Z), so that when theelevator-car is at the bottom of the shaft this switch may be thrown soas to break the circuit at that point and prevent the operation of thedoor-openin g mechanism while the operator is away from his car. Theother line of the circuit, coming in over the wire 0, is connectedserially with the contactblocks P, and also in branches by wires (1 withthe electromagnets H of the door-opening mechanism,whioh latter are inturn connected by wires 6 with the contact-blocks Q, and from thencethrough the contact-plate R to the other line of the circuit.

The purpose of making the contact-blocks P shorter than thecontact-blocks O and Q is to energize and actuate the magnet H of thedoor opening and closing mechanism before the motor is started up and,through the operating-cable, made to open. the door. It is preferablethat the locking of the door-open ing mechanism and the operation of themotor should be successive, although no particular harm would result ifthey were practically simultaneous, and, indeed, the locking might occurafter the motor had commenced operation without defeating the object ofmy invention, but such operation would be liable to injure themechanism.

B designates the battery or other source of electrical energy.

It will thus be seen that where the mechanism is electrically operatedand controlled whenever the car reaches a landing or floor the circuitwill be first closed through the electromagnet operating the clutch ofthe door opening and closing mechanism at such floor by theoperating-lever U being brought to the center and making contact withthe plate T, which closes the electric circuit through not only suchmagnet, but also the control-magnet N of the motor. \Vhen thecontrol-lever is thrown to either side of the center to cause the car tomove up or down in the shaft, the circuit will be broken and the doorwill be reclosed through the operation of the motor in the escape of theoperating-fluid, or by any suitable connections which it may be desiredto make that will be thrown into operation upon the breaking of theelectric circuit, such connections being common and well understood. If,however, it should be desirable to close the door before the car startsto leave a landing, then the operator, by pressing upon IIO 570,476 I js the push-button X in the car, will break the circuit and cause thesame result as if the control-lever were thrown over to break thecircuit. It is also obvious that the connection for the operating-leverto make and break the circuit may be entirely dispensed with and thecircuit be closed at each floor by the passage of the car, but suchpassage would be made with sufficient speed to prevent the motor fromgetting under operation and cause the opening of thedoor unless the carstopped at a floor. In such case when the car left the floor the doorswould close automatically, or by the cum ployment of the push-button thecircuit might be broken and the door closed before the car started toleave the floor.

In the electromechanical construction illus trated in Figs. 2, 6, '7,and 8 the only difference in the operation is as to the door opening andclosing mechanism, which is purely' mechanical, and thus savesconsiderable wiring and the location of magnets in the shaft. In thisconstruction the locking-bolt is normally held out of engagement by thelever f, actuated by a spring g, of greater strength than the spring h,which works upon the lockbolt, and hence when the lever is unrestrainedthe lock-bolt would be normally held out of engagement with the teeth orprojections on the wheel D. On the top of the car is located a shoe orengaging device, which strikes the free end of the lever f, or a roller1'- thereon overcomes the tension of the spring 9 actuating this lever,and permits the springh of the lock-bolt to shoot the bolt out intoengagement with the teeth or projections on the wheel. This action will,of course, occur at each floor as the car passes, but unless the controldevices have been actuated to put the motor for the operating-cable intoaction.

the door will not be opened.

'for elevators, the combination with anelevator-car, a door-openingmechanism, an operating-cable therefor, and a motor, of an electriccircuit, an electromagnet in said circuit operating the valve of saidmotor, and means upon the elevator-car for making and breaking saidelectric circuit, substantially as described.

2. In a door opening and closing apparatus for elevators, thecombination with an elevator-car, a door-opening mechanism, anoperating-cable therefor, and a motor for said cable, of an electriccircuit, an electromagnet included in said circuit for operating thevalve of said motor, and means carried by the car for automaticallymaking and breaking said circuit, substantially as described.

3. 'In a door opening and closing apparatus for elevators, thecombination with an elevator-car, a door opening and closing mechanismcomprising an electromagnetic clutch, an operating-cable for suchmechanism, and a motor for said cable, of an electric circuit in whichis included the magnet of the said clutch, an electromagnet foroperating the valve of the motor, and means carried by the car formaking and breaking said circuit, substantially as described.

at. In a door opening and. closing apparatus for elevators thecombination of a door-opening mechanism, a motor at the bottom of theelevator-shaft adapted to actuate said mech anism, and lever-controldevices upon the car connected in electric circuit with the motor andadapted to set the latter in operation,

substantially as described.

5. In a door opening and closing apparatus for elevators the combinationwith an elevator-car, a door-opening mechanism, an op crating-cabletherefor, and a motor for said cable, of an electric circuit, anelectromag of an electric circuit including the magnet of said clutch,an electromagnet for operating the valve of the motor, threecontact-blocks secured in the elevator-shaft and two contactplatescarried by the car and adapted to en:

gage said contact-blocks and close the circuits, substantially asdescribed.

FRANK ll. HERDMAN.

Witnesses:

M. E. SHIELDS, O. R. BARNETT.

